Coal combustion products, primarily bottom ash and fly ash, represent a significant percentage of waste stream materials that are placing an enormous demand on landfills and storage ponds across the United States and around the world. Under some storage conditions, coal fly ash can cause a negative impact on the environment. Accidents involving the waste disposal and storage of these materials have recently caused the United States Environmental Protection Agency to rewrite its handling procedures for the safe storage of waste ash products.
It would be beneficial to use ash in concrete and other encapsulated applications, thereby reducing potential leaching to levels that are far below applicable limits. However, a need exists to improve the properties of such concrete products, particularly their compressive strengths.
The present invention has been developed in view of the foregoing and to remedy other deficiencies of the prior art.